Structure for a reel



Aug. 2, 1966 WMIM W. K. BECKER STRUCTURE FOR A REEL Filed May 21, 1964 BY W awe/W United States Patent 3,263,941 STRUCTURE FOR A REEL William K. Becker, Ross Townshi Kalamazoo County,

Mich., assignor to Aero-Motive Manufacturing Company, Kalamazoo, Micln, a corporation of Michigan Filed May 21, 1964, Ser. No. 369,058 3 Claims. (Cl. 242-107) This invention relates in general to structure for connecting a balance reel between a reel support device and a load and, more particularly, to such structure which permits the balance reel to pivot and/or swivel with respect to the reel support device and/ or the load engaging device.

Balance reels, particularly of the type having a large load capacity, are usually quite heavy and bulky so that movement therof is at best difiicult, particularly when they are connected to a load. Furthermore, it is common to use balance reels under conditions where it is necessary to pull the cable thereof away from the reel in different downward but sideward directions at relatively close intervals of time. It is also characteristic of balance reels that the cable depends therefrom at a point spaced sidewardly from a vertical centerline through the connection of the balance reel to its support device. Accordingly, the point at which the cable leaves the balance reel is frequently on the opposite side of said centerline from the load so that the cable departs from the reel at an unnecessarily sharp angle, which increases the strain upon the cable and thereby reduces its useful life. Moreover, the sharp angle of departure also tends to reduce the effectiveness of the balance reel for its intended purposes because of the large frictional losses thereby created between the cable and the associated parts of the balance reel.

With existing reel supporting and load engaging devices, the intertia of the balance reel strongly opposes any urging there-of away from any given position, even though such position is awkward with respect to the load. As a'rule, such position can be changed only with some amount of additional pulling or jerking on the cable which often creates as much wear and tear on the structure as would be created merely by using the balance reel in its less efficient position. Furthermore, such adjustment is made more difficult when the load is attached to the reel cable. In addition, it is often desirable to shift the position of the load slightly with respect to an apparatus located below the load, without moving the reel, or in a direction in which the reel cannot move. Present support devices for, or their connections, to balance reels do not provide the ease of movement which is required to meet this need.

Accordingly, a primary object of this invention has been the provision of an apparatus for connecting a balance reel between a support device and its load, which apparatus will give the balance reel a greater freedom of movement with respect to the mounting of the support device and with respect to the load around substantially common axes, which apparatus has heretofore been unavailable for this type of equipment and which, therefore, will minimize the wear upon the balance reel and its cable.

A further object of this invention has been the provision of an apparatus, as aforesaid, which is adapted for the use with existing balance reels without any change in their construction and with only minor changes in the attachments normally provided on the balance reel for engaging a support device and a load.

A further object of this invention has been the provision of an apparatus, as aforesaid, which is inexpensive to fabricate, which is foolproof in operation, which 3,253,841 Patented August 2, 1966 "ice requires little or no maintenance, and the adaptation of which does not affect adversely any of the existing operational characteristics of the balance reel so that its use is entirely advantageous.

Other objects and purposes of this invention will become apparent to persons familiar with this type of equipment upon reading the following descriptive materials and examining the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a broken, side elevational view of a balance reel including the apparatus of the invention.

FIGURE 2 is a sectional view taken along the line II-II in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is a sectional view taken along the line III-III in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 4 is an exploded, sectional view taken along the line IVIV in FIGURE 3.

FIGURE 5 is a sectional view taken along the line VV in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 6 is a sectional view taken along the line VIVI in FIGURE 5.

To facilitate the description of the invention, the terms upper, lower and words of similar import, as used herein, will have reference to the balance reel and the apparatus of the invention as appearing in FIGURE 1. The terms inner, outer and derivatives thereof will have reference to the geometric center of the balance reel and parts of the apparatus.

General construction The objects and purposes of the invention, including those set forth above, have been met by providing a combined hanger and support device connectible to the upper side of a balance reel, whereby the balance reel is adjustably, pivotally and swivelly connected to a support device. In order to complete the apparatus, whereby the balance reel is given greater freed-om of movement, a swivel mechanism is provided in the connection between the load engaging device and the cable of the balance reel. Thus, due to the offset position of the cable, it is possible to change the lateral position of a relatively heavy load with respect to the device supporting the balance reel by pivoting the balance reel around its suspension axis and without changing the orientation of the load. Obviously, this permits the load to be moved downwardly away from the balance reel into a variety of lateral positions therebelow, even though the support device is not moved laterally and the cable is moving downwardly from the balance reel in a vertical direction.

Detailed description Briefly, the reel assembly 10 (FIGURE 1) embodying the invention includes a balance reel 11 and a support device or hanger structure 12 for suspending the balance reel 11 from a mounting device, here a hook 13. The reel assembly 10 also includes a swivelled engaging device or hook 14 by means of which said balance reel 11 can engage and support a load, not shown.

The balance reel indicated at 11 in the drawings may be substantially conventional, such as the reel dis-closed in Patent No. 3,105,652, entitled Apparatus for Supporting a Heavy Load, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. Said balance reel 11 includes a housing 21 comprising separable housing portions 22 and 23 which are rigidly joined by the screws 24 and nuts 26. An elongated flexible element such as the cable 28 extends normally downwardly from the housing portion 22 through a cable guide 29. The cable 28 is normally urged to retract into the housing portion 22 by conventional means, not shown. Thus, in a conventional mar1- ner, a downward urging of the exposed portion of the cable 28, to which a load is attached, will move the load 3 downwardly from the housing 21 and reverse movement of the cable 28 will result in upward movement thereof toward the housing 21. A pair of spaced, parallel rollers 31 and 32 are rotatably supported on the cable guide 29 to guide the cable 28 passing therebetween toward and away from the balance reel housing 21.

In the particular embodiment of the balance reel 11 shown, a resilient stop device 36 is attached to the cable 28 adjacent the lower end thereof for resiliently preventing retraction of all of the cable into housing 21. The resilient stop device 36 comprises a sleeve 37 affixed to the cable 28 by a lock nut 38. A spiral spring 39 encircles the cable 28 and is supported at its lower end upon the sleeve 37. A stop block 41 is slideably arranged on the cable 28 above, and in contact with, the upper end of the spring 39. Thus, upward movement of the cable 28 into the cable guide 29 brings the stop block 41 into contact with the bottom surface of said cable guide 29 whereupon compression of the spring 39 resiliently stops the retraction of the cable 28. The portions of the balance reel 11 hereinabove described may be substantially conventional.

The support device or hanger structure 12 (FIGURE 1) includes a pair of upright and spaced mounting brackets 51 and 52 which are integral with, or rigidly affixed by any convenient means, such as by welding, to the housing 21. The mounting brackets 51 and 52 (FIGURE 3) include a pair of axially aligned openings 54 and 55, respectively, which are each provided with sleeves 56 for snugly receiving therein and therebetween a guide rod or bolt 57. The guide bolt 57 has a smooth shank between the brackets 51 and 52, and it is engaged by a nut 58 at its rightward end.

The brackets 51 and 52 have a further pair of axially aligned openings 59 and 60, respectively, which contain sleeves 61 and 61A, respectively, for snugly receiving and rotatably supporting an adjustment bolt 62 therein and therebetween. The adjustment bolt 62, which is threaded substantially throughout its length, is rotatably held upon the brackets 51 and 52 by the nut 63 and pin 65 on the rightward end thereof. The adjustment bolt 62 may be rotated within the openings 59 by rotating the head 66 thereof. The bolts 57 and 62 are horizontally spaced from each other and are parallel. Moreover, the bolts 57 and 62 are preferably parallel with the rotational axis of the drum, not shown, upon which the cable 28 is wound.

A substantially L-shaped member 71 (FIGURES 1, 2 and 3) has an upright flange 77 with a horizontally elongated base portion 72. A cylindrical opening 73 and an internally threaded opening 74, which extend through the base portion 72, are parallel and are horizontally spaced for receiving the respective bolts 57 and 62 therethrough. The guide bolt 57 is slideably received through the cylindrical opening 73, and the adjustment bolt 62 is threadedly received through the threaded opening 74 for properly positioning the flange 77 between the brackets 51 and 52, depending upon the load. The L-shaped member 71 is therefore capable of lengthwise movement along the bolts 57 and 62 in response to rotation of the threaded bolt 62. A lock nut 76 is threadedly supported upon the threaded bolt 62 to prevent unintentional rotation of the adjustment bolt 62. The upstanding flange 77 includes an integral and substantially triangular brace 78 which extends upwardly from the upper surface of the base portion 72. The L-shaped member 71 includes a substantially horizontal and relatively thick flange 81, which is preferably integral with the topmost portion of the flange 77 and extends rightwardly at a right agnle as seen in FIGURE 1, from the flange 77 toward the bracket 52. The flange 81 has a downwardly opening, semispherical recess 86 (FIGURE 4) which communicates at its upper end with an upwardly divergent, frusto-conical opening 87 through the upper surface of the flange 81. Thus, the recess 86 and opening 87 together define a passageway 88 through the flange 81.

An upwardly extending, downwardly opening hook 83 is releasably engaged with and supported on the hook 13, and is connected to the flange 81 by a pivoted swivel structure 84. The hook 83 has a depending shank portion 89 with a lower, cylindrical portion 91 of reduced diameter forming a downwardly facing, annular shoulder 92. When the pivoted swivel structure 84 is in its normal, assembled condition, the cylindrical portion 91 extends downwardly through the passageway 88 for reception through the central opening 93 of a ring 94 having a substantially semispherical outer surface 90. The surface 90 preferably has the same radius of curvature as the surface defining the semispherical recess 86.

The ring 94 is held against the shoulder 92 by the nut 96 on the lower end of the portion 91. A pin 97 extends through the lower end to the cylindrical portion 91 to prevent inadvertent removal of said nut 96 from the shank 89.

Thus, the engaging, semispherical surfaces of the ring 94 and recess 86 are in slideable contact for permitting rotation of the member 71 about the axis of the passageway 88 therein, and for permitting swivelling movement about the center of the semispherical surface 90. The amplitude of such swivelling movement is dependent upon the diameter of the opening87 in the flange 81. A pivot angle of from 30 to degrees is desirable.

The swivelled engaging device 14 (FIGURES 1 and 5) includes a substantially cylindrical and hollow outer shell 106 having a radially inwardly extending flange 107 at the lower end thereof defining a central opening 108, which communicates with the chamber 109 in the shell 106. A hook 111, which may be of substantially conventional construction, includes a spring actuated lever 112 for closing same. The hook 111 has an upwardly extending cylindrical shank 113 with an annular bead 114 thereon. The shank 113 extends upwardly through the central opening 108 in the flange 107 into the chamber 109, the bead 114 preventing excessive upward movement.

A thrust bearing 116 is received within the chamber 109 and is supported upon the flange 107. The axial thrust collar 117 is secured by the pin 118 to the upper end of the shank 113 and supports the hook 111 upon the bearing 116. Said pin 118 is snugly received through coaxial holes 121 and 122 in the shank 113 and collar 117, respectively. A corresponding, diametral opening 123 is provided through the outer shell 106, and is alignable with the openings 122 and 121 for insertion and removal of the pin 118.

The upper end of the shell 106 (FIGURES 5 and 6) is internally threaded at 124 for threaded reception of a cylindrical, externally threaded plug 126. The plug 126 has a downwardly opening, central recess 127, which communicates at its top and along one side with a slot 128 of slightly greater width than the diameter of the cable 28. The slot '128 preferably extends diametrically of the plug 126.

The cable 28 has a substantially cylindrical stop element, indicated by broken lines at 129 in FIGURES 5 and 6, aflixed to the lower end of said cable 28 in any convenient manner. The stop element 129 is snugly receivable into the central recess 127 of the plug 126 for securing said plug upon the cable 28. The plug 126 is mounted upon the lower end of the cable 28 by inserting the cable 28 radially inwardly into the slot 128 in the plug 126 until said cable and plug are coaxial. Thereafter, the plug 126 is moved downwardly along and coaxially of the cable 28 until the stop element 129 is received into, and abuts the upper end of, the central recess '127. A downwardly opening notch 131 extends diametrically of and in the lower end of the plug 126. A pair of diametrically aligned holes 132 in the shell 106 are 'alignable with the notch 131 by threading the plug 126 into the upper end of the shell 106. Upon achieving such alignment, a pin 133 may be received through the openings 132 and within the notch 131 for preventing inadvertent movement of the plug 126 with respect to the shell 106.

Operation Assuming the reel assembly is in its fully assembled condition of FIGURE 1, the weight of a load (not shown) can be supported upon the hook 1151 in a conventional and well-known manner. When a load is sup ported by the cable 28, the balance reel 11 should be in a substantially upright condition, and the bolts 57 and 62 should define a substantially horizontal plane.

The horizontal location of the center of gravity of the combined balance reel and load will shift somewhat with a change in the weight of the load and with a change in the amount of cable 28 extending out of the balance reel housing. The location of the said center of gravity can be adjusted in a horizontal direction after such changes by adjustment of the adjustment bolt 62. More specifically, the lock nut 76 is released and the adjustment bolt 62 is rotated to move the L-shaped member 71 axially of said adjustment bolt 62. Such adjustment is continued until the balance reel 11 achieves a substantially upright or untilted condition so that the shank 89 of the hook 83 is as close as possible to a position above the center of gravity of the loaded balance reel 11. Because the shank 89 is not adjustabletransversely of the bolts 57 and 62, the adjusted position may be a slight compromise. However, this will result at most in a small angular shift of the balance reel 11, which will not adversely aflect the operation of the balance reel 11. The lock nut 76 is now tightened against the L-shaped member 71 and the reel 11 is ready [for use.

The interaction of the surfaces on the semispherical ring 94 and the semispheri-cal recess 86 in the flange 81 allows the balance reel to be rotated about the axis of the shank 89 of the hook 83 for adjusting the position of a load. The surfaces of the ring 94 and recess 86 also permit pivoting motion of the balance reel 11 with respect to the hook 833. That is, the axis of the shank 89 can vary its inclination to the flange 81.

The swiveled engaging device 114 permits anti-friction rotation of a load suspended upon the hook 111 about the axis of and with respect to the cable 28, without imparting a twist to said cable 28. Thus, a load aflixed to the hook 111 can be rotated around a vertical axis substantially through the center of gravity of said load without disturbing the positions of the cable 28 or balance reel 11. Likewise, the reel 11 and load can be rotated and/or pivoted together 'with respect to the hook 13. Furthermore, the reel 11 can be rotated about a vertical axis with respect to the load and the hook 13, whereby the lateral position of the load is changed either with or without altering its attitude or orientation.

Neither the hanger structure 12 nor swivel hook 14 interfere with the normal balance function of the balance reel 11. Hence, the load supported on the hook 111 may be raised easily by an upward force applied to the cable 28 of the balance reel 11, upward motion being limited by the abutment of the stop block 41 of the resilient stop device 36 with the underside of the cable guide 29 on the balance reel 11.

Although a particular preferred embodiment of the invention has been disclosed above for illustrative purposes, it will be understood that variations or modifications thereof which lie within the scope of the appended claims are fully contemplated.

What is claimed is:

1. A structure for pivotally connecting a balance reel between a support and a load, comprising:

a. balance reel;

a pair of horizontally spaced abutments aflixed to the upper end of said balance reel;

a screw supported on and extending between said abutments for rotation with respect thereto;

a rod connected to and extending between said abutments, said rod being parallel with and spaced from said screw;

a substantially L-sha-ped member having first and second, substantially perpendicular flange means, the first flange means having a pair of parallel openings slideably receiving said rod and threadedly engaging said screw, whereby said L-shaped member is moved axially of said rod in response to rotation of said screw;

wall means defining a pivot opening extending through said other flange means in a direction substantially perpendicular to a plane defined by said rod and said screw, the end of said pivot opening nearest said reel having an enlarged portion diverging toward said reel;

connection means engageable with said support and including element means extending through and and spaced from said wall means defining said pivot opening;

a pivot member having a surface defining a spherical segment and movably engageable with said wall means of said pivot opening defining said diverging portion, said pivot member being removably connected to said element means;

a cable extending firom and operably controlled by said balance reel; and

load engaging means including a swivel member connected to said cable and rod means pivotally connected to said swivel member and oonnectible to a load.

2. A structure for pivotally connecting a balance reel between a support and a load, comprising:

a balance reel;

a pair of horizontally spaced abutments aflixed to and extending upwardly from the upper end of said balance reel;

a screw supported on and extending between said abutments for rotation with respect thereto around a substantially horizontal axis;

a rod connected to and extending between said abutunents, said rod being parallel with and spaced from said screw;

a substantially L-shaped member having a downwardly extending flange and a sidewardly extending flange, the downwardly extending flange having a pair of parallel openings, one of said openings slideably receiving said rod and the other of said openings threadedly engaging said screw, whereby said L- shaped member is moved axially of said rod in response to rotation of said screw;

wall means defining in said sidewardly extending flange a pivot opening therethnough, said piwot'opening having a lower portion defining a downwardly opening, first spherical segment and having an upper reduced portion defining an inverted fru-stum of a cone communicating with said lower portion, the axis of said opening being substantially perpendicular to a plane defined by axes of said rod and said screw;

connection means engageable with the support and including element means extending through and spaced from said wall means defining said pivot opening;

a pivot member having a surface defining a second spherical segment snugly and slideably disposed adjacent said first segment within said pivot opening, said pivot member being removably connected to said element means;

a cable extending from and operably controlled by said balance reel; and

load engaging means consisting of a swivel member connected to said cable, and rod means pivotally connected to said swivel member and conneotible to a load.

3. A structure according to claim 2, wherein said calble has an enlargement on its free end and said swivel membercomiprises:

an upper cup having a downwardly opening recess for receiving said enlargement therewithin, said icup having a radial slot extending a little more than halfway therethrough for slideably receiving said cable therein;

a lower cup having an upwardly opening recess therein communicating with a downwardly opening hole of lesser diameter, the'upper end of said lower cup being threadedly engaged with said upper cup;

means for preventing the disengagement of said cups;

and

a thrust bearing in said upwardly opening recess; and 1 wherein said rod means extends through said hole and into said upward-1y opening recess, and a collar is fixed to said rod and rests on said thrust bearing, whereby said balance reel is pivotally swivelled with respect to saidsupport device, and said load is pivota-lly supported by said balance reel.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 5/ 1951 Schleicher 29482 8/1957 Fischer et a1. 242-107.4 8/1957 Larson et a1 287-82 X 11/1957 Teutsch 29498 10/1963 vBecker et a1; 242107.4

FOREIGN PATENTS 9/1950 Great Britain.

0 MERVIN STEIN, Primary Examiner.

STANLEY N. GILREATH, Examiner.

W. S. BURDEN, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A STRUCTURE FOR PIVOTALLY CONNECTING A BALANCE REEL BETWEEN A SUPPORT AND A LOAD, COMPRISING: A BALANCE REEL; A PAIR OF HORIZONTALLY SPACED ABUTMENTS AFFIXED TO THE UPPER END OF SAID BALANCE REEL; A SCREW SUPPORTED ON AND EXTENDING BETWEEN SAID ABUTMENTS FOR ROTATION WITH RESPECT THERETO; A ROD CONNECTED TO AND EXTENDING BETWEEN SAID ABUTMENTS, SAID ROD BEING PARALLEL WITH AND SPACED FROM SAID SCREW; A SUBSTANTIALLY L-SHAPED MEMBER HAVING FIRST AND SECOND, SUBSTANTIALLY PERPENDICULAR FLANGE MEANS, THE FIRST FLANGE MEANS HAVING A PAIR OF PARALLEL OPENINGS SLIDEABLY RECEIVING SAID ROD AND THREADEDLY ENGAGEING SAID SCREW, WHEREBY SAID L-SHAPED MEMBER IS MOVED AXIALLY OF SAID ROD IN RESPONSE TO ROTATION OF SAID SCREW; WALL MEANS DEFINING A PIVOT OPENING EXTENDING THROUGH SAID OTHER FLANGE MEANS IN A DIRECTION SUBSTANTIALLY PERPENDICULAR TO A PLANE DEFINED BY SAID ROD AND SAID SCREW, THE END OF SAID PIVOT OPENING NEAREST SAID REEL HAVING AN ENLARGED PORTION DIVERGING TOWARD SAID REEL; 